Tuesday Tip: Reevaluate Your Cable Service

August 19, 2014

It happens all the time. You enter a deal with your local cable provider and lock in a price for one or two years. It’s usually a pretty good deal for a while. Maybe you get some free movie channels thrown in. Then, down the line, the day comes and your bill makes a sudden jump. Your promotional period has ended, and you’re now on the hook for the same service at a higher price. Time to reevaluate your needs.

It’s tough to turn down the good deals when they are available, but you probably weren’t looking for all of those channels and features that you got. You’ve got more important uses for your money, like paying off debt. Now that the price has increased, the best thing to do is evaluate your actual habits and needs and change your service plan to keep the costs down.

Call your service provider to make changes to your service. Tell them that you need to spend less and want to drop some features to lower the costs. This will probably involve removing premium channels like HBO, Showtime, etc. or possibly slower internet speed.

They will likely make you a new offer to help you keep most of the services at a lower price, which you can accept if you wish. This is often another temporary price reduction, which will need to be addressed again in the future.

Tip: Have specific goals/pricing in mind and ask for that. You won’t get what you don’t ask for.

I recommend being polite to the representative with whom you speak. They are not making the decisions for the company, just doing their job. If you are not getting the assistance or the changes that you’re seeking, then simply ask to speak to a manager. Moving up the chain of command usually gets you better results.

If they can’t offer you a deal that you can live with, then you can always cancel your service altogether and switch providers. Once you mention this to the representative, there is a good chance they will sweeten their offer even further. They want to keep you as a customer. However, don’t mention canceling just as a bluff. You must be prepared to actually walk away.

If you’re thinking about cutting the cable and switching to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, then check out our previous post on Cutting the Cable.

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As the marketing and education supervisor for American Consumer Credit Counseling, Albie has been spreading the frugal word since 2008. He also contributes and designs content for ACCC’s client newsletters, educational materials, and their website, ConsumerCredit.com.
Albie loves a bargain, and is a sucker for anything used. Well, almost anything.

About Blog

Talking Cents was created by the staff of the nonprofit organization, American Consumer Credit Counseling (ACCC). Not satisfied with providing credit counseling, debt management, and financial education alone, these renegade employees took to the blogosphere in the hopes of helping not only their current clients, but the rest of the world at large to tackle more of the topics affecting people’s everyday financial lives.